Apple updates iPhone, iPod, Touch and iTunes

Steve Jobs has unveiled Apple’s revamped media player range for the crucial Christmas sales period, and announced a major software update for the iPhone.

Speaking to a packed press conference, Jobs announced that the iPhone would get a major software upgrade on Friday.

He promised that the upgrade would deal with many of the issues plaguing the device, including reducing dropped calls, extending the battery life and making backing up to iTunes much easier.

"It fixes a lot of bugs," he said. "It's a big one for the iPhone."

Application sales for the iPhone have also been a huge success, he said. So far 100 million applications have been downloaded for the iPhone and Touch, which is remarkable as the applications store has been open only for 60 days.

The iPod range is also getting a revamp. Jobs said the thicker version of the iPod Classic is being dropped due to poor demand and the updated slim version would hold 120GB and cost $249.

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The Nano has been completely redesigned and is the thinnest Nano yet, with an oval rather than a rectangular design. It has an accelerometer attached and has a larger screen.

New applications have been added, including shuffling songs by shaking the device and automatic reimaging of the screen.

Battery life has been improved, so that it gives 24 hours of music playback or four hours of video. It will come in eight colours, and models available include an 8GB player for $149 and a 16GB for $199.

The Touch device has also been made slimmer and has improved battery life to give 36 hours of music and six hours of video playback. It now also has external volume controls and an external speaker.

The new Touch will come in three versions: 8GB for $229, 16GB for $299 and 32GB for $399.

Jobs also made it clear that the Touch is being repositioned as a mobile gaming platform. A special version of Spore has been created for it and other games are in development.

The iTunes software has also been upgraded, with a tweaked user interface and a new application called Genius, which automatically generates playlists of similar music.

These playlists are uploaded anonymously to iTunes to improve the Genius algorithm.

Jobs also announced that the iTunes store would begin to sell high definition content from today and that NBC had returned to selling its programmes on the service.

To date the iTunes store has 65 million customer accounts, 8.5 million songs, 3,000 TV shows and 2,600 movies he said, making it the number one music distributor in the US.

Jobs also addressed concerns expressed by environmental groups over the environmental safety of its consumer products line.

"We want to be very environmentally concerned with these products," he said. "We want to reduce the amount of packaging, but the biggest thing we worry about are toxins."

The new range will contain no PVCs or BFRs, and non-arsenic glass. The bodies will be totally recyclable.

After much speculation about his health one of the first slides Jobs presented was a quote from Mark Twain: "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

"Enough said," he commented to applause.

Steve Wozniak was at the launch and, while he wasn't talking to the press, he seemed well satisfied with the new product line.